God said, 'Let there be lights in the vault of heaven to divide day from night and let them indicate festivals, days and years. Let there be lights in the vault of heaven to shine on the earth.' And so it was. God made the two great lights: the greater light to govern the day, the smaller light to govern the night and the stars. God set them in the vault of heaven to shine on the earth, to govern the day and the night and to divide light from darkness. God saw that it was good.

(Genesis 1/14-19)

Our Sun is only one of the stars in this spiral galaxy.

Spinning out from the galaxy, in the lower windows 5 and 6, are the four inner planets in our solar system, Mercury, Venus, Mars and our own fragile planet Earth, with its silvery Moon (mid lower third of this window).

In the vast anonymity of Space, the presence of our own friendly blue planet is a welcoming homecoming among all this vastness.

Behind the three pillars of dust of the "Eagle" nebula seen in windows 2, 3 and 4, are star laden clouds of dust. Springing from the base of window 6 is another set of ribbons forming the boundaries of sky, land and sea. The downward sweeping diagonal band of red photo-ionised hydrogen starting at window 2 compress the amorphous dust clouds until at the bottom of this window the colours of our planet Earth - sky blue, volcanic greys, yellows and reds and sea blue - appear.

Audio Commentary